Of The Unknown
by Green Aquarium
Summary: Five years later, while reflecting upon a most extraordinary Halloween night, Wirt visits the location were he stumbled into The Unknown.


For all the things that had changed over time, he still found himself doing exactly what he had planned on doing on this very day five years ago: avoiding a Halloween Party. Sure, he had been generously invited to attend by an acquaintance in his American History class, but he had fibbed in response and informed him that he already had plans. Wirt really didn't feel like going to a party of any sorts, as usual he was feeling far too anxious and depressed. Instead, he figured that he would simply partake in his annual holiday tradition of sitting alone in his darkened dorm room, eating discounted sweets while he marathoned old horror films on VHS.

But this year, even that basic and mindless joy didn't feel satisfactory. Something from his past was beckoning him, something oddly innocent and sincere that he desperately needed, that these candies and B-movies couldn't provide. In a rare moment of impulsivity, Wirt dashed off to the campus parking garage and picked up his automobile. What he planned on doing was dumb, but hey, it couldn't possibly be more of a waste of time than idly sitting in his room hopelessly trying to distract himself from how lonesome tonight truly was.

Driving through the city's northern residential neighborhoods, Wirt soon found himself in the area that he had grown up in. Many young trick-or-treaters wandered the sidewalks, dressed up as costume store vampires and witches. Seeing them brought back warm memories of happier Halloweens when he was younger and less pessimistic. Soon he passed by Mrs. Daniels' house and his own old residence; he was getting closer until, at last, he saw the cemetery.

After parking his car, Wirt hesitated before stepping out. Wandering through the gravestones, he eventually reached the big stone wall that marked the graveyard's edge. He began to climb up it, until he spied the train tracks over the wall, a sight he had not seen since that fantastical evening five years prior. It was certainly hard to believe that so much time had passed.

Greg was the only one with whom he had discussed what had really occurred during that strange time that they were in The Unknown, when they were trapped between death and life, between the past and present, between actuality and dreams. But the two of them rarely, if ever, conversed about that subject nowadays. In fact, since Wirt was at extremely busy with work at university, they hardly ever talked much at all, expect during family vacations.

Greg was now in high school, and was truly an ace student. He got good grades on his schoolwork, was friendly to everybody, and excelled in extracurricular activities. As lame as it was to admit, Wirt was envious that Greg and him had never shared a year together at the same school, having an optimistic little brother to watch your back surely would've made the ever-dreadful experience of teenaged schooling easier to tolerate.

He wondered what Greg was doing tonight. Probably catching a movie at the cinema with some of his chums, he concluded. It seemed surreal to Wirt that his younger brother, the boy who had almost sacrificed his life to The Beast in order to protect Wirt's own, was now just a normal teenager who's adventures into the enchanted forests of The Unknown were a secret to all his new friends. The two of them had an entire amazing chapter of their lives that nobody else would ever be aware of. Unfortunately, everything after said chapter seemed like a horribly dull anticlimax.

Wirt yearned for those wonderous woodlands that they had wandered through long ago, he missed the tall ancient trees and the quaint magical places that they had stopped through along the way. He even missed everyone that they had chance to meet during their journey. The one he missed most of all was Beatrice, her feathery blue form guiding them through the woods, the precious conversations they two of them shared, her ecstatic relief when he gifted her the scissors that released her from her cursed form. He had only seen her human body once, briefly after he helped her cut her wings off. Her blue gown was glorious, her hair like a hot fire in the terrible winter night. How could he ever forget such a striking image radiating like a flame in the unbearable coldness? Her colorful form in the endless, bleak, snowy whiteness, it was all a picture that the grandest of poets might spend their entire lives attempting to replicate in verse.

He was no great poet, but he had tried.

Getting back to normalcy had been great for a long time. He and Sarah finally got together, dating for a few years. But as often, their naïve young love was built upon unsteady ground, not fated to last. The two of them agreeing to breakup was the most difficult thing he had done, even harder than searching for Greg in the icy depths of the edelwood groves. It led to many a sleepless night with his eyes bloodshot and wet. But that was behind him, easy to ignore now as simply being in the past.

Then why couldn't he get the Unknown out of his head like he had with her?

Wirt jumped down to other side of the wall and hurriedly crossed the train tracks. Standing at the freezing water's edge he stood absolutely still, soundlessly gazing at the lake's surface. After a few minutes of this, a realization of foolishness overcame him. He had arrived here for some kind of an epiphany, some sort of answer, but none would come. He sadly admitted to himself that no matter how strongly that he wished he could once again wander through the forest with Beatrice and Greg that it was impossible. He was no longer able to access the portal that would take him back that fairytale world, he didn't even know were to start looking for it. It was a stinging defeat, and Wirt turned around as he began to glumly creep back to the cemetery. As he ascended the stony wall once more, he spotted something perched atop of it.

It was a bluebird…


End file.
